It’s not a belief. It’s a sentiment. It’s mostly a deep longing! It is a feeling of yearning for something that seems missing or elusive whether it be a sense of wholeness, a sense of being “at home in the world”, a sense of belonging (to another sometimes) or a sense of participation in the awesome grandeur of the sublime. It can certainly be a reaction to anything felt as impoverishing or oppressive so it can be a reaction to the misuse of reason when it misses out on important aspects of natural and human reality or when it is misused to justify irresponsibility, irresponsiveness, or exploitation.
When humanists look back at the Age of Enlightenment and the “Romantic Reaction” to it in “elite” and bohemian circles … (Bohemia refers here to the sketchy urban neighborhoods where students intermingled with street people, drop outs, and artist types) … they note that this turn toward “rationalism” in Europe involved a lot of categorization that was part of the racist rationalization of European imperial colonization which was very brutal. After Auschwitz ‘Critical” thinkers like Adorno and Horkheimer saw the roots of totalitarianism in The Enlightenment, but I’m not sure they advocated for “romanticism.” The sentiment at the time was more like “After Auschwitz, poetry is impossible.”
So be it. I like Neo-Gothic architecture (Disneyland silly as it often was) to Neo-Classicism, which, though prettier than Neo-Nazi Brutalism, is still boring.
I always have thought that Romanticism was the ultiamte luxury belief.
It’s not a belief. It’s a sentiment. It’s mostly a deep longing! It is a feeling of yearning for something that seems missing or elusive whether it be a sense of wholeness, a sense of being “at home in the world”, a sense of belonging (to another sometimes) or a sense of participation in the awesome grandeur of the sublime. It can certainly be a reaction to anything felt as impoverishing or oppressive so it can be a reaction to the misuse of reason when it misses out on important aspects of natural and human reality or when it is misused to justify irresponsibility, irresponsiveness, or exploitation.
When humanists look back at the Age of Enlightenment and the “Romantic Reaction” to it in “elite” and bohemian circles … (Bohemia refers here to the sketchy urban neighborhoods where students intermingled with street people, drop outs, and artist types) … they note that this turn toward “rationalism” in Europe involved a lot of categorization that was part of the racist rationalization of European imperial colonization which was very brutal. After Auschwitz ‘Critical” thinkers like Adorno and Horkheimer saw the roots of totalitarianism in The Enlightenment, but I’m not sure they advocated for “romanticism.” The sentiment at the time was more like “After Auschwitz, poetry is impossible.”
Adorno an advocate for "Romanticism"? Nope!
Otoh, re. your quote about poetry, what about poet Nelly Sachs, who wrote O the Chimneys (and many other works)? She wrote poetry about the Holocaust.
So be it. I like Neo-Gothic architecture (Disneyland silly as it often was) to Neo-Classicism, which, though prettier than Neo-Nazi Brutalism, is still boring.